Verizon Wireless is facing a complaint filed to the FCC by the advocacy group Free Press, who feels that Verizon shouldn't be allowed to block tethering applications on smartphones. "This practice restricts consumer choice and hinders innovation regardless of which carrier adopts such policies, but when Verizon Wireless employs these restrictions in connection with its LTE network, it also violates the Federal Communications Commission's rules," said the Free Press in its
complaint to the FCC yesterday. More specifically, the rules state that Verizon can't deny, limit or restrict the ability of their customers to utilize smartphone applications that offer tethering. Verizon has currently not commented on this complaint publicly.
This complaint could likely turn into a double edged sword, as companies push towards
pay per byte models removing unlimited access like AT&T introduced last year. Carriers do offer tethering and hotspot functionality on their smartphones, however, by signing up for the service you lose your unlimited data and get pushed to tiered usage based pricing. Until recently users have been using third party applications to enable tethering without removing unlimited access, which has lead to companies like
Google getting involved and removing tethering applications through the Android Market and AT&T sending out warnings to heavy data users. With 4G data service approaching higher end cable tiers in terms of speed, carriers are more focused on controlling their pipes and ensure quality service for their customers.
Free Press Complaint Excerpt: By asking Google to remove tethering applications from the Android Market, Verizon violates the rules under which it operates its LTE network. When the FCC auctioned the C Block of the Upper 700 MHz spectrum--the spectrum on which Verizon has deployed its LTE offering--the Commission adopted important license conditions to protect the openness of broadband networks. It provided that licensees using that spectrum "shall not deny, limit, or restrict the ability of their customers to use the devices and applications of their choice." In the words of Chairman Kevin Martin, the Commission adopted the conditions to ensure that "consumers will be able to use the wireless device of their choice and download whatever software they want onto it...."
Tethering software exists solely to help users easily attach additional devices, such as laptop computers, tablets, or digital cameras, to the network. These devices (and innovative new ones that have not yet made it to market) are the successors to the cordless phones and fax machines of yore. Without tethering applications, users would have to buy separate wireless connections for each of their devices--much as if a consumer were required to pay for a separate residential telephone connection for his fax machine, his dial-up modem, and his cordless telephone....
If Verizon makes it difficult for users to gain access to free or low-cost tethering applications, it can charge users an extra $20 per month for the privilege of using Verizon's own tethering application...
If the Commission's openness rules are to have any meaning, the FCC must act quickly to investigate Verizon's indiscriminate and arbitrary blocking of tethering applications.
For the full text of the complaint -
Free Press Complaint to FCC Verizon and C-Block
